Distribution of RNA M. Leprae Household Contact in Endemic Area Indonesia

Background and Objective: Chronic leprosy disease is caused by the transmission of Mycobacterium leprae bacilli, and leprosy is still as an enigmatic disease which is not fully understood. In terms of the national level, leprosy disease in Indonesia remains a public health problem. 16S rRNA gene is a gene that encodes which codes the 16S part of the ribosome and it has specific nucleotides and can specifically be used to detect the cases of leprosy. Materials and Method: This study was classified as the observational study using a case-control research design. The total samples were 81 individuals that consisted of 27 leprosy patients (the case group) and 54 non-leprosy patients (the control group). Analysis of 16S rRNA gene expression was conducted using the RFLP-PCR method to detect the risk of leprosy. Results: All samples of swabs of ear lobes for the case group (27 samples) were definitely positive infected by M. leprae and 2 dust samples (7%) collected from houses of the case group showed positive infected by leprae bacilli, i.e. S05 and S09 respectively. Of all samples of dust collected from houses of non-leprosy patients (the control group), 4 dust samples (14%) was positive infected by Mycobacterium leprae, i.e. C03, C05, C09, C11 respectively, and 2 non-leprosy patients were infected by M. leprae due to close social interactions with leprosy patients. Conclusion: Dust medium and close social interactions were the causal factors for the transmission of leprosy disease. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct strict control to prevent the widespread of leprosy disease by keeping the cleanliness of houses at the local areas and the surrounding environment as well as the caution to do social interactions with leprosy individuals.